We had another early start – here are our brekky shots –
For this day, we were booked to visit the St Louis Cemetery for the Save Our Cemeteries tour. I will leave it up to you to do some reading on the cemeteries for New Orleans but a walking tour of them isn’t as strange as it sounds!
The tour started at the Basin Street Station – which was an old railway station that is now a museum. It had some great displays!
Even a display of railway signal lanterns! We actually have one of these that has been turned into a lamp – so it caught our attention right away!
A great historic view of the old railway lines of the South –
As for the tour, you can read Bill’s review on Trip Advisor. The whole tour turned into a rant – it was disrespectful and off-putting which was a shame because our guide really was enthusiastic and knowledgeable. I just didn’t need to hear her whinge through the whole thing. We did get some good photos though. In some of these tombs there are whole families buried. All the bones end up loose in the bottom of the tomb.
Tomb that includes the remains of the Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau.
New and Old –
An elderly man has been decorating this tomb for many years – he is the only person who is allowed to come in and do this –
The ‘fake’ grave of Marie Laveau.
This pyramid will be where Nicholas Cage is laid to rest. Yes, he has bought and constructed his tomb in advance. Omnia Ab Uno, means “everything from the one”.
We then spent the afternoon at the aquarium. The aquarium got very badly damaged during Katrina and unfortunately, it shouldn’t even be open now. It is very depressing and like a trip back to the 80s. They are currently fundraising to redevelop the site – I hope they are able to get fully back on their feet. Unfortunately, it ended up being a bit of a waste of an afternoon and was expensive considering what was there.
We then went to the IMAX theater to watch Hurricane on the Bayou. It was a really good movie that touched on the environmental issues that contributed to how New Orleans was so badly affected by Katrina.
It was then time for dinner. We secured reservations at Commander’s Palace. Yes, The Commander’s Palace. It was a wonderful experience – very old school dining but the service was absolutely out of this world. To the point where it was actually almost over the top. As we walked through the restaurant to our table every.single.waiter said “Welcome!” or “Hello!” – it was like how people all line up in a single line to shake hands with the Queen… seriously! I had the most amazing pea and ham soup and Bill got a mixed salad to start – they were both amazingly over the stop and decadent! Then, I got a gnocchi with truffle and wild mushroom sauce. The gnocchi were like little pillows of potato fluff. Bill got the most amazing veal chop that was massive and cooked absolutely perfectly. We finished off with Pecan Pie. It was all so perfect and a fitting end to our time in New Orleans.
We got to back to the hotel and I fell asleep as soon as we got back. Packing up for the train had to wait until the next morning…!